Dragon Breeder 1

by Dante King

  I was almost on him, when Gabby popped into the air and flicked his leg in a spinning high kick, aimed at my head. It was a beautifully skilled and executed kick, but I slid beneath him on my knees at the last second. I passed clean under where he hung momentarily in the air, dirt spraying up around me where I skidded across the floor and used my foot as a brake.

  When Gabby landed a second later, I reached out and yanked on his foot, hoping to trip him. The tongueless man was incredibly agile though. He flung himself forward, using my own strength to his advantage and cartwheeled back onto his feet. His foot lashed out and stomped down. He trod on my fingers, and I wrenched my hand away.

  “Ow,” I said.

  A ripple of amusement went through the audience like a Mexican Wave. It had not hurt particularly, though one of my fingers felt like it might have been bent back the wrong way and would no doubt blow up like a sausage later.

  Already though, I had an inkling as to the hand Gabby was going to play. I imagined that if you cut the man open, you would find the word ‘patience’ running all the way through. He was going to wear me down until I slipped up. Then he was going to cave my head in with a snap kick or something along those lines.

  In that case, I better make sure he slips up first.

  I sprang to the attack with a whirlwind kick that forced Gabby backward. Then I delivered a flurry of punches, blows that came so thick and fast that I didn’t even consciously string the combination together. Gabby was driven back even further, blocking with lightning-fast reflexes that were nothing short of impressive.

  The mute caught my hand as I went in with an overhead hammer fist. He aimed at my groin with a kick, but I blocked it.

  Then, we found ourselves locked together.

  We strained backward and forward, each trying to get the other off balance. This was the visceral nose-to-nose fighting that I imagined battle would be like.

  The heat of your foe’s breath on your face, the soft grunting as you tried to get the better of one another. The intense, singular focus each of you channeled as you tried to incapacitate your adversary before they dropped your ass like a hot brick.

  With a deft twist of his hip and a small grunt, Gabby gained the advantage and pushed me away. He struck out with a walloping sidekick that I took on the thigh—and instantly wished I hadn’t. He might have been a slight dude, but he kicked like a fucking mule. I felt my leg buckle, and Gabby lashed out with a follow-up kick. This one I caught though, and suddenly I had my opponent by the leg.

  I forced a smile back, looked at him sternly, and asked, “Do you yield?”

  In response, Gabby threw himself around in an attempt to decapitate me with his other leg. However, I saw this one coming a mile away and ducked. The kick scythed over my head, and Gabby had to stop himself from face-planting by putting his hands out.

  All of a sudden, we were in the wheelbarrow position.

  Gabby made a little noise, which I interpreted as “Shit.”

  I grunted back, a sound of assent, then I drop-kicked him in the face, letting go of his feet at the same time.

  Gabby flipped around, up into the air, and landed on his back. More out of professional soldiering reflex than anything else, I thought, he popped back onto his feet. He was still facing away from me and wobbled slightly as he regained his feet.

  Not being in the mood for what you might call “playing it fair,” I smoked him as hard as I could in the neck—where neck met shoulder, to be precise—with a knifehand strike.

  Gabby dropped to his knees as if his ligaments had been cut. With the inevitability and suddenness of a landslide, I fell on him and wrapped my forearms around his throat. With a sharp, upward squeeze, I applied the rear choke hold, and Gabby’s arms dropped to his side.

  Gently, I lowered the unconscious man to the floor, and stood panting. It was only then that I became aware of the level of noise battering at me like a tide.

  I sucked in a great breath of air and let out a long, “Wooooo!”

  The fight was over, so I figured now was the time to showboat. Do it after the fight is done, and it’s completely legitimate.

  In a blink, Elenari and Saya were at my side. Their arms were around me, heedless of the sweat streaming off me.

  “You did it!” Elenari beamed up at me, her green eyes shining. “One step closer to being a fully-fledged dragonmancer!”

  The crowd had overrun the ropes and encircled us now, but I noticed that they still gave us, the dragonmancers, our room. A few kindly souls made sure to pick up Gabby and carry him over to where Rupert was working on Bjorn’s busted mouth. Clearly, the spectators were delighted to have witnessed such a bout, but they weren’t going to get too familiar with us.

  Saya gripped me by the shoulder. “What do you want to do now? We must celebrate, yes?”

  I let out another breath, waiting for my heart rate to get back to normal.

  “Celebrate?” I arched an eyebrow. “Back in our private quarters?”

  Elenari frowned at me, clearly confused. “Is there something I’m missing?”

  I laughed and smiled at her. “You can join us if you like, Elenari.”

  Saya grinned at me. “The elf is unfamiliar with such celebrations.”

  I shrugged. “Then I suppose we can think of something else. I doubt I’d be able to contort myself all that well after fighting those three. First things first, though; I need to get dressed.”

  Elenari pressed a bundle into my chest. “You’ll be needing these then,” she said.

  “And these are?” I asked.

  “They are the official uniform of the Rank One dragonmancer,” Elenari explained. “Crimson fighting breeches and a long, comfortable sable shirt. There is a belt too, sturdy enough to hang a sword on when you are issued one. Also, there is this.” She pulled something from her pocket.

  “Hey, my onyx crystal,” I said. “I left that in my jeans. What’s this weird gold cage that’s holding it?”

  “While you were being inducted,” Elenari replied, “I purchased a little golden cage for it, along with the golden chain. Thankfully, it fits without a problem. Now, your crystal will be safe.”

  I took the pendant from her and put it around my neck. My shoulders ached just putting it over my head.

  “Thanks, Elenari,” I said. “I appreciate that.” I rolled my shoulders and looked about us. “Okay, how's this for a plan? You point me in the direction of a shower, and while I’m cleaning up, you gather my new squad together. And each of yours too, I suppose—don’t want anyone to get into trouble for wandering about unprotected now, do we? ”

  “And then?” Saya asked.

  I smiled a blood stained but victorious smile. “Well, I don’t know about you girls, but I could use a fucking drink.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Elenari and Saya led me through the chattering, packed crowds. Behind us, at my instruction, came my new squad. Rupert had administered a dose of pungent smelling salts to Gabby to get him back on his feet, while Bjorn was stumping along at the back with a vaguely dazed look on his face and one of his teeth clenched in his giant fist.

  I was elated at the triple victory of course—it was always great when you avoided getting beaten to death in front of a horde of strangers—but I was also eager for a hot shower.

  As ecstatic and excited as the press of spectators were, Elenari and Saya didn’t have to shove anyone out of the way or speak a single hard word. The swarm parted like the Red Sea as we approached and closed in behind us after we passed.

  The women led me and the lads back up through the gallery hallway and the corridor beyond, and back out into the early evening air. As we stepped into the fragrant, fresh air of dusk, full of the smell of wild mint and rosemary from some herb beds nearby, I inhaled a restoring lungful of air.

  “Come on,” Elenari said, taking me by the arm, “the closest baths are this way.”

  The red-headed elf and the muscular blonde led me and the other three men thr
ough a series of gardens. Eventually, Elenari and Saya stopped outside a door covered in a mosaic pattern depicting a dragon rising from the sea.

  “I sent word ahead with a runner,” she said. “There are four baths ready and waiting for you all, with partitions between each one and towels too. Take as much time as you need.”

  I opened the door and looked at my new squad. I guessed there was no harm in starting with the orders now, albeit pretty basic ones.

  “Let’s not waste too much time,” I said. “Wash the dirt and blood off and soak the muscles a little. Then, we’ll see if Rupert can hold up his end of the bargain and patch up any scrapes. I noticed that potent stuff he waved under Gabby’s nose seems to have done the trick, though it smelled strong enough to solder your nose hairs together. You all good, Gabby?”

  Gabby tucked his auburn hair behind his ears and gave me a thumbs-up. He didn’t smile, but from a seemingly dour man, a thumbs-up was probably a good keystone on which to build a friendship.

  “All right. Let’s get cleaned up and then we’ll make a move into town. I need to get the old tonsils floating in something cold and sudsy ASAP. I’m sure you all feel the same.”

  “Fucking aye,” rumbled Bjorn, giving me a smile that definitely had a few more gaps in it than before we had started our scrap.

  I held the door open, and the boys trooped on ahead of me. I was about to follow them in when I caught the twin looks that Saya and Elenari were giving me. Bemused would be the word that I would use to describe those looks.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s just… you are unlike any of the other dragonmancers here,” Elenari said. “The way that you treat your squad… Like equals. I feel like you are going to turn out to be quite the leader.”

  “I can only agree,” Saya said. “You are certainly different from the other dragonmancers, and not merely by the leviathan between your legs.”

  “Leviathan?” I asked. “Can’t say I’ve heard that one before, but thank you all the same, Saya.”

  Elenari, and not for the first time today, shot the muscular blonde a confused look before aiming the same look at me.

  I laughed. “Well, let’s hope I can get far enough to complete the Transfusion Ceremony. I’m really looking forward to that. For now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and get cleaned up and slip into these sweet new threads you’ve given me.”

  After the bath, I felt like a new man. It was with a light heart, a springy step, and quite the thirst that I followed Elenari and Saya out of the imposing and impregnable front gates of the Crystal Spire and into the town proper.

  While the boys and I had been sluicing the blood, sweat, and dirt from ourselves, Elenari and Saya had sent for their squads. I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure that dragonmancers needed to bring their squads along when they left the keep to enter the town beneath the Crystal Spire. After getting chewed out, it was possible that Elenari didn’t want to take any chances.

  While the two women discussed the quickest way that Elenari and I could get through our shield polishing punishment, I dropped back so that I could talk to Bjorn, Gabby, and Rupert.

  The respective squads had been hanging back from Saya, Elenari, and me, and I gathered that this was an ingrained behavior—soldiers, even squad members, didn’t socialize with the dragonmancers. This might have been custom, but I figured that, if these guys were going to fight alongside me and possibly die for me, then I should at least get to know them a little.

  “So, how’s everyone feeling?” I asked.

  Bjorn looked slightly taken aback at me hanging back here with them, but Rupert was as unperturbed as I imagined he was about most things.

  “No hard feelings, Dragonmancer,” he said. “What happens in the combat arena stays there.”

  Gabby made a noise in his throat which I took for ascent.

  “We’re warriors, and you bested us fairly, Dragonmancer,” Bjorn said. “My only regret is that we did not test you more.”

  I touched my tender ribs, where Bjorn had belted me hard enough that, had I not seen him do it, I might have thought he’d used a sledgehammer. Rupert had smeared an herbal unguent over the spot, and it seemed to be causing the discomfort to fade even as we walked, but it was still a little sensitive.

  I looked up at the big man. He was covered now in a sleeveless tunic, which left his imposingly massive arms bare.

  “I’m sorry I knocked so many of your teeth out,” I said.

  Bjorn shrugged. “No apology necessary, Dragonmancer,” the big man said. “They grow back.”

  “Uh, I think that’s just the once, big fella,” I said. I shot a look at Rupert, wondering whether I should ask the healer whether I might have inflicted a bout of amnesia on Bjorn.

  Gabby grunted, pointed at Bjorn, and then tapped his own teeth.

  “Gabby’s correct in his surmise, Dragonmancer,” Rupert said. “Bjorn, being half-giant, grows teeth back whenever he loses them. The Jotunn are a race prone to fighting. It is an evolutionary trait.”

  “Handy,” I said. “And just call me, Mike, will you?”

  Gabby shot a surprised glance at the other two squad members, which I thought was ironic seeing as he couldn’t call me anything anyway.

  “Uh, that’s not really the usual protocol—” Rupert began.

  “Fuck the usual,” I said. “Anyways, apparently I’m not even a full dragonmancer until I pass this Transfusion Ceremony, right?”

  “Yeah, but after kicking our asses, that is surely just a formality, Dragonmancer,” Bjorn said in his deep bass.

  “Well, for tonight you can just call me Mike, yeah? Then, after the Ceremony, I’ll just make it an order, and you’ll have to call me Mike. I figure we should be friends, as best as we’re able to. It’ll mean we can count on each other when it matters.”

  We carried on walking down the hill. Behind us, the sun gave up the ghost, and the deep purple of the mountain dusk diffused the sky. Even though a band of white remained on the horizon, stars started appearing in the vault above. Coming from L.A., the sight of so many stars was captivating, and I kept looking up to check on how many more materialized.

  “How come those two keep looking back at us?” I asked, noticing the funny look that Elenari shot over her shoulder as we started wending our way into the outskirts of the town.

  “Because you are a dragonmancer and we are simple soldiers,” Bjorn told me. “You walk among us mere mortals as though you are one of us.”

  Gabby motioned at Elenari and Saya with a surreptitious nod, then pointed at the two squads behind us and shook his head.

  “Yeah, but why don’t you all hang out?” I asked, having a stab at interpreting the mute member of my new little company. “You fight together. Surely you can hang together.”

  Gabby shrugged and looked out at the buildings that we had started to pass with his yellow hawk-like eyes.

  “It’s the way it’s always been,” Rupert said.

  I nodded thoughtfully, thinking my squad would operate differently. You couldn’t ask people to risk their lives for you and follow your orders without question, then refuse to sit at the bar with them. The very thought of that was just too alien to my nature.

  “Right,” I said, clapping my hands, “where are we off to then? You guys must know a few good watering holes. I want to hear the story about how Gabby lost his tongue—we may as well address that elephant in the room as soon as possible.”

  “Well, I guess that you and the other two dragonmancers might head to some of the fancier, more select taverns,” Bjorn growled. “The squads tend to wait outside and remain sober.”

  “No, no fuck that,” I said. “We’re all going to celebrate together. I beat you all, so I get to choose how we roll this evening. That’s only fair, right?”

  Gabby shrugged and pointed at me.

  “That’s right, Gabby,” I said. “I’m the boss for tonight.”

  We had passed out of what might have been called the suburbs, if
we had been back in Los Angeles, and into Downtown. Up close, the architecture was particularly foreign, and I had to say that I liked it. It sure beat the usual concrete monstrosities of apartment blocks, strip malls, and parking lots.

  The houses were all made from a pleasant mixture of wood and stone. They all sported steeply pitched roofs, and many of the stone chimneys were already leaking fragrant white wood smoke out into the early evening air. Their windows looked warm and inviting, orange firelight and the flicker of candles seeping out into the street to light the cobbles. There were also streetlights dotted about the place, Dickensian-style glass boxes set on iron poles. These were filled with the same sort of soft luminescence that I recognized as fairy light.

  “Are the fairies trapped in the lights?” I asked Rupert as we passed one.

  “No, of course not, Dragonm—uh, Mike, I mean,” Rupert replied. “That would be slavery. No, they are employed by the Martial Council.”

  “Paid in what?” I asked.

  “Bread and honey is traditional,” Rupert said. “Fairies are fiends for a bit of bread and honey.”

  The streets became busier with pedestrians heading this way and that, crossing and recrossing the winding cobbled lanes. Once again, there was a host of races that I hadn’t ever imagined could actually exist outside of a C.S Lewis novel; fauns, pixies—who weren’t as small as we on Earth had been led to believe—and some rangy, hairy humanoids that might have been lycans. There were many more, creatures and folk that I couldn’t put a name to but were certainly not human. No doubt many had finished work for the day and were hurrying home to their cozy hearths and waiting families. Many bowed their heads reverently as they passed Elenari and Saya—I even noticed a couple of men performing sweeping bows and one old woman drop a curtsy the likes of which I hadn’t seen outside of a period drama.

  Eventually, we came to a wide-open space—the town square, according to Rupert. It was vibrant, filled with life; smells and sounds and talk. A large statue stood in its center, depicting a dragonmancer riding a rearing dragon. The dragon’s neck was stretched out, its mouth pointed at the night sky, and in its maw a blue flame burned.